Work by Molly Bullick :: Poem by Gerda Stevenson
The Red Duchess
Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, 1874-1960, Edinburgh; first Scottish female Member of Parliament; Scottish Unionist Party MP for Kinross and West Perthshire, 1923- 1938; the first woman to serve in a UK Conservative and Unionist government; resigned the Conservative Whip in 1938 in opposition to Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement of Adolf Hitler, and to the Anglo-Italian agreement; was then deselected by her own party, who dubbed her the Red Duchess.
From Quines by Gerda Stevenson
Artist’s statement
I chose this poem because every word sang out to me. The inability of government to give credence to common sense or to ‘read between the lines’ as evidenced today makes me despair. I have been thinking a lot about the waves of immigrants and displaced persons all over the globe and various governments humanitarian and not so humanitarian responses. And so history repeats and repeats. Good intentions tumble and the horrors remain hidden. I love the phrase ‘I told you so.’ So true.